Whether it was racing ponies at age seven, driving for big purses in Quebec at the turn of the century, or training his own stable, Sylvain Lacaille has always done things his own way, and given it his all. The result? He has grown into one of Quebec’s leading drivers.
Story by Paul Delean
IN RETROSPECT, THE FIRST RACE HE DROVE in appears to have been a sign that nothing would come easy for Sylvain Lacaille.
He was seven, competing in a trotting race for ponies at the fairgrounds in Rougemont, QC, behind Tanglewood Pepsi, a horse owned by his father Marcel. Because he was so small, his legs barely reached the stirrups, and when he tried to shift position during the race, he fell into the gap between horse and bike.
“The horse dragged me but I didn't let go of the lines and finally he stopped. Then I got back on and finished the race. When you're young, you bounce,” Sylvain said.
Marcel, watching from the paddock, still remembers it vividly.
“People were applauding his determination. He didn't cry. He didn't quit. He got in the sulky again and went. He's done that all his career.”
Fall, get up. Fail, regroup, try again. That's been the story line for Sylvain Lacaille's 40 years in the horse business. If he was an NHL player, he'd be a grinder, an honest and unsung professional who shows up every night and gives it his best.
A lot of people assumed he'd have it easy as “Marcel's boy,” son of one of Quebec's leading breeders and most influential horsemen.
In fact, it's something he never tried to exploit and it's probably hindered him more than it has helped.
For starters, his father wasn't keen on him becoming a horseman. Marcel had other business interests, including trucking, shipping and a car dealership, and he thought the oldest of his three sons would be better off working in one of them.
Sylvain did give truck dispatching a try, but quickly abandoned it. “It was not me at all, stuck inside four walls. I couldn't concentrate.”
Horses were what he loved. He'd grown up with them, raced them as a kid on the rough-and-tumble pony circuit. His first job after high school had been working for U.S. horseman Carl Allen.
“My brother Daniel and I thought we were going to our winter home in Hallandale. My dad pulls into Carl Allen's place in Ocala and announces 'I've found you jobs, and as a bonus you'll learn English'. I stayed six months, grooming good horses like It's Fritz and Spellcaster, living in a place with no insulation. Carl was a great guy, he'd give you the shirt off his back, but he was firm, and you had to work.“
Back in Quebec, Marcel had begun to build a breeding operation that would eventually be the largest in the province. But Sylvain felt like a fifth wheel, and upon his return from the U.S., decided to break away, working for trainers like Lesley Turcotte and Andre Lachance, securing his licence to drive and then starting his own barn.
“It was tough not having a barn to back you up. Money was tight. I had to work two jobs. From four to 11, I worked in an IGA warehouse. It was a painful climb.”
In 1996, Sylvain made his first solo yearling purchase, Habile P J, a Quebec-bred son of his father's trotting stallion Promising Catch who had failed to meet his reserve price at auction.
The breeder was celebrated French horseman Jean-Pierre Dubois, a friend and neighbour of the Lacailles in St. Bernard de Lacolle, QC. “They wanted $8,000, but when Jean-Pierre heard it was me, he agreed to $5,000. That's all I could pay, I took out a $20,000 loan to get through the winter that my Mom (Renee) signed for,” Sylvain said.
Habile P J was a difficult horse but a talented one. He made over $40,000 at two, ending his season with a third-place finish in the Canadian Breeders' final at Mohawk. At three, Habile P J started his season by winning a $37,000 Quebec Sires stake , then tailed off badly. Sylvain, thinking the horse's best might be behind him, sold him to Ferme Brodeur for much less than he would have brought at two.
The horse continued racing until age seven and made another $140,000.
The Habile P J experience left him with a lot of self-doubt about his training and horse-management skills and he stopped for a while, opting to become a groom for one of Quebec's emerging racing stables at the time, Alain Durivage's Ecurie A.D.
The Durivage stable had Gilles Gendron as its regular driver, but with 50 horses, there were opportunities for others, and Sylvain began getting catch-drives with horses he exercised and groomed.
As the wins became more numerous, he became the stable's go-to driver, accumulating a career-high 73 wins and $926,000 in purses in 2001.
The race that could have cemented his status - the $200,000 Prix du Quebec final for Quebec-bred pacing mares at Hippodrome de Montreal in 2001 - instead turned into his worst nightmare.
Driving Durivage's Touchez Pas La Mor, the 2-5 favourite, Lacaille circled the field on the final turn and paced home two lengths clear of the nearest rival, Majo Maly, only to be disqualified and placed last after the judges upheld an objection that Lacaille had drifted off the inside and into the path of Majo Maly's stablemate, Majo Nad, on the first turn.
“Like a stake in my heart,” Sylvain said. “Worst day of my life. Totally humiliated. I went right to the ground “
He got another chance to shine in 2003 when Dubois named him to drive Taurus Dream , a Hambletonian starter the previous year, in the Frank Ryan Trot at Rideau Carleton. That didn't end well either. He used the horse early and wound up a distant fourth behind Abbey Road C. Dubois “benched me for a year. He said 'never come back with a dead horse' That was a good lesson. When someone talks to you about his horse, listen.”
Vindication finally came in 2010, when Sylvain won two of the three finals for Quebec-bred two-year-olds at Hippodrome de Quebec with Winning Dream and Nuriev Dream, both owned by Dubois .“Unfortunately, the purses were $20,000 instead of $200,000 and there were no trophies. It wasn't the same,” he said.
Still, he's happy with his how his career, and life, have played out. At 47, he's one of the leading drivers in Quebec, in wins and money, and also competes regularly at Rideau Carleton. He's won more than 600 races and $5 million in purses. He trains a 10-horse stable and he and wife Chantal Duval recently bought a 35 acre farm in St. Paul de Joliette, QC. Daughter Kelly, 13, the youngest of his four children, loves horses as much as he did as a kid and joins him for most road trips.
“To be a horseman who can do it all, like Jean-Pierre or an Yves Filion, that's my goal,” Sylvain said. “Nothing's been easy but I keep the faith and keep fighting for my dreams. I never stopped working I've always been the first at a job and the last to leave.”
Marcel, 70, who was skeptical at first, said his oldest son's journey in racing is a testament to perseverance and character.
“He's an honest person, with credibility. A professional. That's so important for harness racing today. He could have had everything at our farm but he preferred to do it himself, make his own choices. I lift my hat to him. He's carrying the torch now for an industry I love.”